Some members of a “mendacious media”, along with “tawdry politicians”, are resolved to undermine the higher education sector with claims that increased tuition fees have been used to inflate the pay packets of senior academics, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University has said.

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Prof Louise Richardson dismissed suggestions there was a link between the two, saying tuition fee rises were introduced to make up for shrinking public subsidy. And, while she acknowledged her pay was significantly greater than that of her academic staff, she said vice-chancellors operated in a global market and her counterparts in the US were paid even more.

“We have been getting a rough ride lately, and certainly some mendacious media and tawdry politicians seem determined to do their utmost to damage one of the most successful – and globally admired – sectors of the British economy,” she said.

Speaking at the Times Higher Education’s world academic summit on Monday, she said it was “completely mendacious” of politicians to “suggest that vice-chancellors have raided the £9,000 fee to enhance their own salaries”.

Rather, she said, “we know that the £9,000 fee was to substitute for the withdrawal of government funding”.

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Richardson’s comments come a few months after the University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics, said the latest available figures showed the average salary for a university vice-chancellor in the UK was 6.5 times that of the average member of staff at their institution and the former’s pay had grown faster than that for academics in recent years.

“Soaring senior pay in UK universities has long been an embarrassment for the sector, and previous calls for restraint have fallen on deaf ears,” said the UCU’s general secretary, Sally Hunt.

The union acknowledges that replacing the lost government funding is the principle use of increased tuition fee revenue. But it said: “Regardless of whether students or taxpayers are footing the lion’s share of the bill, it is unacceptable that vice-chancellors have enjoyed inflation-busting pay rises while preaching pay restraint for their staff.

“Vice-chancellors point to the international market as justification for their pay awards. But, in truth, there is an appalling lack of transparency in how senior pay is decided.”

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Richardson did not name the specific politicians or media outlets she was criticising. But the universities minister, Jo Johnson, and the former Labour minister Lord Adonis – each an Oxford alumnus – have been vocal in their concern about the issue.

Adonis has previously called for an inquiry and, earlier this summer, Johnson said the best paid vice-chancellors should be required to demonstrate that their performances merit their salaries.

He said: “There is clearly a link between the hike in fees and the hike in vice chancellors’ pay and that of the army of highly paid university administrators under them.

“Instead of denying it, Prof Richardson would have done better to announce a cut in her excessive salary and a reduction in fee levels at Oxford. This head-in-the-sand attitude is damaging our universities and harming students who now face debts of up to £100k on graduation.”

Johnson said: “I want the ratcheting up of vice-chancellors’ pay to come to an end. Universities need to show leadership. I want exceptional pay to be justified by exceptional performance.”

The issue has been extensively covered by various media outlets, including the Guardian.

Speaking on Monday, Richardson said: “My own salary is £350,000. That’s a very high salary compared to our academics who I think are, junior academics especially, very lowly paid. Compared to a footballer, it looks very different; compared to a banker if looks very different.

“But actually, we operate, as I keep saying, in a global marketplace,” she told the audience at King’s College London.

Richardson said she wished politicians would not draw “spurious” links, “not because it’s embarrassing for me or my colleagues but because it’s damaging”. She asked: “Why would you want to try and damage what is one of the most successful aspects of the British economy?

“One of the most admired facets of the British economy is the quality of our education. Compared to the size of this country, the calibre of university education is something that should be celebrated on a daily basis, and not just trying to drag it down by making spurious correlations between fees and salaries.”